by Fontessa Brusse

At the October FEW Meeting William Reed, Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer and President of B-SMART Systems spoke to FEW members and guests about "How you can apply Guerrilla Marketing in Japan". Williams's presentation was divided up into four areas:

- The 30-second Marketing Message.
- What is standing in the way of your success?
- What it means to be photogenic.
- How to get slightly famous.

Guerrilla Marketing was developed by Jay Conrad Levinson in the 1980s and has applications for both the individual and large companies. Guerrilla Marketing is about bringing together the tools to help you assemble your puzzle and achieve your goals. In the introduction to his presentation, William outlined Guerrilla Marketing as essentially a primary tool for promoting yourself, gaining support for projects and earning profits for your company. According to William, Guerrilla Marketing is easy but at the same time challenging as it is up to you to put in the effort. The two most important points of Guerrilla Marketing are good presentation and good information. Know your niche, your target and know your identity. Most importantly imagination, energy and time are what is required in Guerrilla Marketing before you spend money.

The main part of William's presentation focussed on the 30-second Marketing Message. At its heart the 30-second Marketing Message is a quick way to get across your personal brand or product. Why just thirty seconds? William pointed out that the average person's attention span is only about thirty seconds long. William's analogy was of the 'bird of inattention' that 'alights briefly, and then flies on'. At this point, FEW members and guests were asked to do a timed self-introduction/marketing message that communicated their personal brand, message or product in less than thirty seconds. In doing so, William asked FEW members and guests to consider some of the following:

- What is your unique selling proposition?
- What makes it unusual, interesting, and humorous?
- What makes your message memorable?
- What makes your message credible?
- Can you adapt it for different audiences?
- How does it benefit this particular person/audience?

William discussed what stands in the way of getting your marketing message across and achieving success. Firstly is attention deficit. In everyday life people are inundated with marketing messages and suffer information overload. On average most people are exposed to upward of 3500 marketing messages a day. Information overload means that people rarely listen beyond 30 seconds. Secondly, several people will interpret one message in different ways. As an example William asked the FEW audience to look at a picture of a monkey, and then to each write down ten words that came to mind. After this we were asked to form groups and compare words in common. For most of the group, very few people had words in common as each person took a different message from the picture. The point of this exercise was to make us consider how different audiences might interpret one marketing message. Therefore in marketing yourself it is important to find a way to make your message accessible to as many people as possible.

Being photogenic is not about having 'good looks' but more about being able to present your self well and to project the right image. To be photogenic you need be authentic, appealing and have a good aura. You have to understand yourself and your marketing message. Most importantly you must believe in your job or your product. If you are authentic, then your message will be clear. Combined with your 30-second Marketing Message and great personal presentation, excellent body language is vital. Words form only 7 - 10% of what people absorb in visual or physical interactions. The rest is gained from your body language, intonation and voice. Projecting a good visual image is the key to achieving success in marketing yourself or your product. Your presence should be balanced, relaxed, poised and present. At this point in his presentation, William taught the FEW audience some martial arts exercises that help centre the body, promote good posture and release tension in the body.

Getting slightly famous is about creating your own brand, finding ways to get yourself out there and thus remembered by people. William gave an example of a friend of his, a very accomplished American tap-dancer who does a lot of performances. William visited his friend in America with a group of Japanese fellow tap-dancers. William's travel companions met his tap-dancing friend and liked him very much. Not long after that he was invited to Japan to give a series of very well received tap-dancing presentations. A few months later an opportunity came up for a tap-dancer on Japanese television. William's friend was remembered, his name suggested and he was invited back to Japan. Now he is on his way to having his own show on Japanese television.

William suggested looking at www.getslightlyfamous.com for further information.

In concluding his presentation William suggested looking at his website which lists 20 ways to GM yourself for free. Also he let us know that the masters of Guerrilla Marketing, JC Levinson, Jan Austin and Roger Parker are available to FEW members. Those who are interested can email William or check out William's website at www.b-smart.net . You can also check out the following website: www.gmarketing-genius.com.